Education, Innovation and Youth Job Creation
Every economy depends on the education system to generate the human capital needed for sustainable growth.
Education has always been critical for improving young people’s chances of decent work and social mobility. Equipping youth with the skills necessary to adapt to any future transition is a critical task of formal and informal education. A well-educated workforce is critical to adopt new technologies and innovations, encourage entrepreneurship, and spur growth in new innovation-intensive sectors that are most likely to create decent work opportunities.
Key challenges
55% CEOs globally believe that the current skills shortage hinders the ability of their companies to operate effectively. And nearly half are worried that skills availability is significantly impacting quality standards and/or the experience of their customers. (PWC, 2020)
Unless there are dramatic reforms in delivery, innovation, inclusion, and financing, many children will be left behind by the global economy. More than two-thirds of children in low-income countries — many of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East —will not be on track to have the skills they need to succeed in the workplace of 2030.
(Global Business Coalition for Education, 2019)The skills gap is a global challenge, and a lack of education is the root. In 57 of 108 countries, more than half of the workforce have jobs not matching their level of education — 72% of this skills mismatch is attributed to under-education.
(UNICEF & WBCSD, 2021)Young people are more likely to be unemployed. Young people in the labour force are three times as likely as adults to be unemployed. (ILO, 2023)
Decent work is not available for many young people. Even among employed youth, 30% are living in extreme to moderate poverty with an income below US$3.20 per day, signaling the lack of decent work.
(ILO, 2020)Youth are particularly vulnerable to automation. In OECD countries, the risk of job displacement is highest for youth because they are more likely to be in occupations with the highest probability of automation. (ILO, 2020) (Nedelkoska & Quintini, 2018)
The global learning crisis is a critical barrier to youth employment. 69% of youth in low-income countries will not attain basic primary level skills by 2030. (Deloitte & GBCEd, 2018)
As digital skills become essential for the future of work, the gender gap persists. In the European Union in 2016, only one in six students in information and communications technology (ICT) were female. (ILO, 2020)
Make the case
Many youth are not satisfied with the education and training they are currently receiving. In a global survey of 531 youth in 2018, 39% reported that their formal school did not prepare them with the skills they needed for the jobs they wanted. (Deloitte & GBCEd, 2018)
Education must adapt to future trends and be relevant for the world of work. Around two billion jobs, or half of the jobs available in the world today, are expected to disappear by 2030 due to automation. The most vulnerable countries could lose as many as 80% of jobs. (International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, 2016)
Higher levels of education reduce employment vulnerability. In 27 low- to upper-middle-income countries, eight out of 10 young people with a higher education degree were in non-vulnerable employment.
(Sparreboom & Staneva, 2014)The quality of education and learning must improve dramatically to ensure that young people are better equipped for the workforce. More than 600 million children around the world who are in school are not on track to learn the skills they need to thrive in the future. (Education Commission, 2019)
To adequately prepare youth for future employment, education needs to provide not just knowledge but also life skills. Socio-emotional skills are a more powerful predictor of earnings, over and above the effects of schooling and cognitive skills. (World Bank, 2018)
In Uganda, individuals with a higher level of education are more likely to work for a wage or salary with an employer. In Uganda, self-employment and work as an unpaid family member are more likely among workers who have a low level of education. Also, three in four workers with a higher education receive sick leave and annual leave and more than one in two benefit from social security contributions. At most, one in ten workers receives such benefits having only completed primary education.
(UNESCO, 2023)
Key opinions
"Education and training are the keys to unlock opportunities for women and men to gain employment, launch businesses and create better lives for themselves and their families. As we work to build a better and more resilient future after the COVID-19 pandemic, we must ensure quality education systems that are accessible to all."
"I believe education unlocks the opportunity to better articulate the greatness within us. We all have a light of greatness and revolutionary ideas within us. When this energy is matched with the knowledge of how to better express ourselves and challenge our current ways of thinking, it introduces new growth and opportunity to be a greater asset to ourselves and the world we are a part of."
Key talking points
Education can provide quality, inclusive learning opportunities to develop relevant skills for the future of work.
The skills needed for work are constantly evolving, which means that life-long learning is more important than ever.
On current trends, more than half of all young people will not have basic skills for the workforce in 2030. In sub-Saharan Africa, fewer than one in five young people will be prepared for the future of work.